Julian Assange, convicted computer criminal and founder of the controversial website Wikileaks, was briefly charged with rape by Swedish authorities. The charges have since been dropped, but he's still under investigation on allegations of molestation. (Source: AP)

Assange's packed trip also allowed him to sign a partnership between Sweden's Pirate Party and Wikileaks. Assange says that the two organizations "share many values ". (Source: Torrent Freak)

Wikileaks inks serving deal with Pirate Party, known for its support of illegal downloads

It's been a wild weekend for Sweden and the site Wikileaks.

On Friday Swedish authorities issued an arrest warrant for Julian Assange, founder and commander in chief of Wikileaks. According to Karin Rosander, a spokeswoman for the prosecutor's office, Mr. Assange had been arrested in absentia and faced raped charges on two separate instances.

Then on Saturday Chief Prosecutor Eva Finne posted an official statement on a government website stating that Mr. Assange is "no longer wanted" and "is not suspected of rape." However, the statement indicates that Mr. Assange is still under investigation on molestation charges.

In Sweden molestation is a sex crime that can apply to nonconsensual sexual contact among adults, as well as with minors (unlike in the U.S., where it typically refers to inappropriate contact with minors). Also, unlike the U.S., the offense is not punishable by prison time.

Sources in the Swedish media said the investigation stems from Mr. Assange's trip to Sweden last week. During that active trip Mr. Assange reportedly had sexual encounters with two women -- aged 20 and 30. Reportedly both encounters were consensual, but Mr. Assange then allegedly engaged in nonconsensual sexual violence. After the women connected and shared their stories, they decided to approach Swedish police. Ironically, Aftonbladet, the tabloid that Mr. Assange recently signed a deal to report for, was the first to publish the 30-year-old's account of the situation.

Mr. Assange on Saturday called the allegations a "dirty" trick. He also appears to have posted on a Wikileaks-affiliated Twitter account, "The charges are without basis and their issue at this moment is deeply disturbing."

While Mr. Assange now seems out of serious legal danger, the allegations are certainly embarrassing for Australian native who now finds himself a hot topic in the Swedish tabloid he recently launched a career with. Mr. Assange has had his share of legal troubles over the years, being a convicted computer criminal in his home country.

Besides signing on to write for Aftonbladet, which may help Wikileaks obtain Swedish journalistic protections, Mr. Assange also found time in his apparently packed trip to sign a pact with Sweden's Pirate Party. The Pirate Party, known for its promotion of currently illegal music, film, and video game piracy, will offer hosting service for Wikileaks.

Pirate Party leader Rick Falkvinge comments, "I’m delighted that we’re able to help WikiLeaks. I love opportunities to demonstrate that one of the biggest differences between us and the other parties is that we positively leap at any and all changes to take real responsibility for changing the world, rather than just commission reports and avoiding blame like the archetypal politician."

Mr. Assange says that his organization shares much with the Pirate Party. He states, "We welcome the help provided by the Pirate Party. Our organizations share many values and I am looking forward to future ways we can help each other improve the world."

Wikileaks also hopes the Pirate Party will push for more protections for it in Sweden's Parliament. Mr. Assange states, "We hope that the new Parliament will give serious consideration to further strengthening Sweden’s press protection legislation. Western democracies are not always as free as one might think, and freedom of the press needs constant vigilance. In particular, we would welcome Sweden copying Iceland’s Modern Media Initiative, something that the Pirate Party also desires."

Mr. Assange, though, claims that the only solution to eliminating government corruption is complete transparency. He is currently preparing to release more documents, even as the U.S. government reportedly scrambles to protect its Afghani informants from the potentially deadly cost of exposure.

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As stated above, your interpretation of the statements you posted is flawed, infact if you check their own site they explain what they mean in more detail.

If you look into copyright and patent law more deeply its become quite corrupt from what it was originally intended to be, Orignally things had a set number of years before they became PUBLIC DOMAIN, meaning anybody could use/enjoy them without cost.

Now companies have paid politicians to change the laws so that nothing will go public domain within any normal humans lifetime, somebody borne today will never seen something made in their lifetime go public domain, even if the author of say a book where to die today, that book would never go public domain because the persons publisher or family or or or would keep rights to it into the indefinite future.

this IS NOT WHAT WAS INTENDED WHEN THE LAWS WHERE FIRST WRITEN.

they where intended to protect authors/creators and their ability to make a living off said works.

Patant's that where originally intended to protect creators and their inventions so they could make a living off it have also become corrupted, Look how many VAGUE patents are used to sue other companies and stifle innovation.

Look no farther thenapplemicrosoftrambus

I could go on and on if you like, hell on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on... the current system has become more about patent trolling then anything else.

Our society in the USA has become about lawyers making money, Who do these laws benefit the most? LAWYERS, they make money off of this crap weather they win or loose, Hell I know a few lawyers who will readily admit they make money either way and they do string stuff out for years so they can rack up billable hours, they dont care how laws screw over society as a whole as long as they make their money.

The RIAA is mostly made of lawyers, the MPAA is mostly made up of lawyers...what do you expect lawyers to do, risk their profits by admitting that piracy is actually making their companies money?